Understanding and Overcoming Speaking Anxiety: Causes, Effects & Risk Factors

Speaking anxiety is a mental health condition in which a person is afraid of talking in front of others, especially in large group settings such as giving a presentation or speech.

Causes

• Speech anxiety can be caused by general shyness, fear of being embarrassed or feeling unprepared to talk in front of people.

Effects

• Speaking anxiety can cause nervous ticks and twitches, sweating, stuttering, blushing and dizziness while speaking.

Risk Factors

• Those who are naturally shy and have less experience talking in front of groups tend to be at greater risk of speaking anxiety.

Universality

• A certain level of speech anxiety is normal, even for experienced speakers, but those with more severity anxiety are less likely to be able to control it and may display signs of nervousness while talking.

Considerations

• Speech anxiety can negatively affect speeches and presentations if it becomes noticeable; anxiety can feed on itself if a presentation is going poorly, which can lead to greater occurrence of symptoms.